Many Christians only go to church on Easter and Christmas. For me, I often want to skip church on Easter and Christmas. You see, we Mormons are a little too casual in our celebration. Like Kristine (my favorite mo-blogger), I have holy envy. I wish we had a bit more pomp and circumstance. I wish we had better music and more ceremony. I wish we were a bit more High Church, especially at Easter. Although it didn’t happen this Easter, several times over the years I have gone to church on Easter and the sacrament meeting theme was priesthood or tithing, or something very mundane for Mormons.
When I was a teenager, I used to go to Christmas mass as an act of rebellion. (Only in
This Easter our sacrament meeting had an Easter theme (very good), the choir sang Easter songs (also good). Anyway, I teach Sunday school to the teenagers. I thought I would go over the western liturgical calendar. Specifically, we discussed Holy Week. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised, with how little my class knew about Holy Week. They didn’t know what was remembered on Palm Sunday. They didn’t know what was honored on Maundy Thursday (although they guessed correctly with a few hints). My class is really smart and scripturally savvy (especially for teenagers), but we Mormons have no exposure to some of the more beautiful celebrations in Christiandom. *Sigh*
Maybe I’ll become Catholic or Anglican for two days a year.
6 comments:
OK, so you get married in temples and have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but it's not high church enough for you? :)
Seriously, I hated going to church on Easter and during the advent season, because it brought out the C&Es (Christmas and Easter attendees) that acted like they owned the place because they showed up twice a year. But loved the annual Maundy Thursday service because it was so very solemn.
My least favorite hymn is "Spirit," which was written by the minister-brother of a congregant of my father's church in Reno, so of course it was sung all the time. My husband, siblings, and -- dare I say? -- parents and I all made up rude verses and sung them under our breath. I moved up here, joined a church -- and one summer while the pastor was on vacation it ended up being sung two Sundays in a row. I ran out of the sanctuary and called Matthew on my cell phone, aghast. "You will not believe what I have to sing - again!"
Heh.
http://www.pateys.nf.ca/music/399_spiritspiritofgentleness.mid
Oh, see what I mean? It's like a dirge.
Shelley--you're right. The music does plod along. Are the lyrics any better?
I agree. This is a true story: A woman in our ward gave a really good talk last year about the week leading up to the resurrection. I'll remember it for years because it was so unusual. We never really discuss the specifics of the week. I was so impressed, I sent her a thank-you note. Our meetings were good this year too, but that one was just so specific...
I have to say I'm not much better then your class. I know vague details of all of those events but I couldn't lead a discussion about them. I'm actually very inspired now to do some specific studying.
Thanks for the post.
By the way shelley, I loved your post. Very funny first couple of lines, it is ironic and gave me a chuckle.
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